"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..

[CornishTone]

Seem pointless to tie yourself to a scheme who’s standards are less strict than your own. Better off being open and honest in what you do, tell your story and save the membership fees for something worthwhile!

 

[awkward]

I believe these schemes are only for the employment of box tickets with a particular agenda supported by an interest be it processor .manufacturer or supplier . with no reguard to what is actually being achieved

 

[Henarar]

its only a club

 

[Treg]

The problem for the consumer in the urban sprawl is how can they verify what you are saying? Nobody likes being inspected but you have to jump through a few hoops to get market premiums.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

All pretty valid points above ^^^^

I know I can simply build my own little chiller, or a trailer even with a chiller, sit the tickets and sell more direct to the consumer. I can beat the butcher, easily and still beat the bit of a premium I would get - so I am leaning that way.

I am obviously not opposed to seeing a bit of blood and animals coming apart - and I am a fairly reasonable butcher as it was another thing the old chap encouraged me to get good at - I tend to work at "chain speed" now and that is something that my regular customers will actually come to watch, and bring their kids

I like the kids. It feels right to grow out animals and then actually get to tell its story as you make it into chops and roasts and trim up the forequarters so they have a wee bit for the cats it is a nicer "buzz" for me to just play at farming and actually connect to the local folk who like what we do here.
But I haven't the client base or intent to really go big with it, few of you will realise how spread out the population down here is.... and then IF I was to do more of it than a few cash killers then it would need to be all.. official... and regulated.... and taxed... but most of them are farmers families, Dad hasn't the time and won't let them buy supermarket or butchery lamb as he will get a round tuit - so who needs to know how it got in the freezer .or why the cats are farting

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

All pretty valid points above ^^^^

I know I can simply build my own little chiller, or a trailer even with a chiller, sit the tickets and sell more direct to the consumer. I can beat the butcher, easily and still beat the bit of a premium I would get - so I am leaning that way.

I am obviously not opposed to seeing a bit of blood and animals coming apart - and I am a fairly reasonable butcher as it was another thing the old chap encouraged me to get good at - I tend to work at "chain speed" now and that is something that my regular customers will actually come to watch, and bring their kids

I like the kids. It feels right to grow out animals and then actually get to tell its story as you make it into chops and roasts and trim up the forequarters so they have a wee bit for the cats it is a nicer "buzz" for me to just play at farming and actually connect to the local folk who like what we do here.
But I haven't the client base or intent to really go big with it, few of you will realise how spread out the population down here is.... and then IF I was to do more of it than a few cash killers then it would need to be all.. official... and regulated.... and taxed... but most of them are farmers families, Dad hasn't the time and won't let them buy supermarket or butchery lamb as he will get a round tuit - so who needs to know how it got in the freezer .or why the cats are farting

Would it work if you targeted Balclutha or Dunedin? 1 day a week? I'm sure folk there would happily buy into what you do.

You'd soon swamp the market in Owaka

Next time I'm there I'll have to do the Pete Blair crash course on "how to take a beast apart for the freezer"

 

[awkward]

try supplying to a kosher butcher or halal

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

As it's grazing related I thought I'd mention here that I'm pleased with the new mains electric fencer. It's a Hotline 1600I with the SMS "command and control" module. It's currently running about 1200M of fence line so barely feels it. The cows are certainly respecting the fence:

The ability to switch the shock on or offby sending an SMS makes fence moving easy as well. Here, with our good signal, the unit responds within 60 seconds.

A good piece of kit that will accompany us to NZ when the time comes.

 

[Samcowman]

As it's grazing related I thought I'd mention here that I'm pleased with the new mains electric fencer. It's a Hotline 1600I with the SMS "command and control" module. It's currently running about 1200M of fence line so barely feels it. The cows are certainly respecting the fence:

View attachment 683278

The ability to switch the shock on or offby sending an SMS makes fence moving easy as well. Here, with our good signal, the unit responds within 60 seconds.

View attachment 683288

A good piece of kit that will accompany us to NZ when the time comes.

Looks a lot better than I’m working with at the moment. An ancient Gallagher mains fencer (it was in a shed at brothers new place) that can do max 300m without the electric dropping nervously low. Good job the steers are well trained and I have a decent battery fencer for the further away bits in the field.
Moving the boys back into their first section tomorrow. 3 weeks since they left it and I’ve split it in half. May even get the chance to weigh them.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

As it's grazing related I thought I'd mention here that I'm pleased with the new mains electric fencer. It's a Hotline 1600I with the SMS "command and control" module. It's currently running about 1200M of fence line so barely feels it. The cows are certainly respecting the fence:

View attachment 683278

The ability to switch the shock on or offby sending an SMS makes fence moving easy as well. Here, with our good signal, the unit responds within 60 seconds.

View attachment 683288

A good piece of kit that will accompany us to NZ when the time comes.

Good bit of kit you have there.
Mine has a a remote that I can send a wave back through the wire, to switch it on and off - but I have only used it once to prove it worked. I always just fence live and if I get a boot then I cuss..

I think the unit here is 25 joules or so, it's a Gallgher M2500 anyway.
Plenty for a hundred acres or so, with my little paddocks there are still a few metres of fence to heat up, but it still has enough grunt to keep the wires clear and a dead short doesn't kill the pulse completely.

On occasion, it is disconnected and my fence is wired directly to a phase this soon burns heavy vegetation off but that's not something you would want to do in the UK

Then I will find evidence of a gorse bush that is burnt out, and I know what the problem was

 

[Kiwi Pete]

try supplying to a kosher butcher or halal

Good idea. The downside is that down here, the local processors are both of those things - pre-stun of course, but Halal guys kill the beef and lamb for opening export doors - you can imagine the ruckus amongst the good conservative Christian farming majority, when that was introdced!

..
firstly they all withdrew stock and shareholding of PPCS (now Silver Fern Farms, where I work) and soon after Alliance followed suit. So they had to lump it!
But I think I will expand my range a little, word of mouth is out, and there is another local guy who does the same so I don't want to steal Rangi's business too much.

Most people are actually surprisingly interested in the story, and watching the process of butchery, I show them all the lymphatic system and what I check for diseases etc etc so I feel they get quite good value while they watch - mostly this process is "closed door" and even few farmers actually know in detail what goes on/gets trimmed off/downgrades a carcass.

 

[awkward]

just thought with the end of Ramadan it could be good market in future much like turkies for Christmas

 

[Farmer Roy]

in an ideal world, our chickpea harvest happens just prior to Ramadan

All of our ( increasingly controversial ) live export trade of sheep & cattle goes to Islamic countries

I personally can see a great market for supplying / home killing sheep & goat for the domestic Halal market, only problems are I am too far from the population, I have zero butchery, marketing & people skills & I know nothing about sheep or goats . . .

but, I reckon it would be a great growth area

Australia has a LOOONG history of supplying Islamic countries / markets, even if we are populated by intolerant racist red neck right wing ignorant white "Christian" xenophobic kuunts

 

[CornishTone]

in an ideal world, our chickpea harvest happens just prior to Ramadan

All of our ( increasingly controversial ) live export trade of sheep & cattle goes to Islamic countries

I personally can see a great market for supplying / home killing sheep & goat for the domestic Halal market, only problems are I am too far from the population, I have zero butchery, marketing & people skills & I know nothing about sheep or goats . . .

but, I reckon it would be a great growth area

Australia has a LOOONG history of supplying Islamic countries / markets, even if we are populated by intolerant racist red neck right wing ignorant white "Christian" xenophobic kuunts

Zero people skills???? Surely not!!![emoji87]

 

[Farmer Roy]

Zero people skills???? Surely not!!![emoji87]

haha - although, when doing funeral work I pride myself on my understanding, respect & sensitivity towards people - but outside of that scenario, every pansy can just go & fuuk themselves

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

On occasion, it is disconnected and my fence is wired directly to a phase this soon burns heavy vegetation off but that's not something you would want to do in the UK

Then I will find evidence of a gorse bush that is burnt out, and I know what the problem was

Following a comprehensive risk assessment and method statement with plenty of warning signs or, of course

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Good bit of kit you have there.
Mine has a a remote that I can send a wave back through the wire, to switch it on and off - but I have only used it once to prove it worked. I always just fence live and if I get a boot then I cuss..

I think the unit here is 25 joules or so, it's a Gallgher M2500 anyway.
Plenty for a hundred acres or so, with my little paddocks there are still a few metres of fence to heat up, but it still has enough grunt to keep the wires clear and a dead short doesn't kill the pulse completely.

On occasion, it is disconnected and my fence is wired directly to a phase this soon burns heavy vegetation off but that's not something you would want to do in the UK

Then I will find evidence of a gorse bush that is burnt out, and I know what the problem was

I'm not using the facility but it has 2 extra terminals. You connect 1 to an extra earth stake and the other to the return end of a long fence. It then monitors for poor earth and for low return voltage with SMS alerts for both. It's a 16 joule unit that runs at 7 joules but ramps up to 16 if it detects a line drop.

I was chatting to a neighbour who backs onto the field the cows are in the other day while moving the fence. His face was a picture when I showed him that the fence was running at 12,000 volts

 

[Crofter64]

Good idea. The downside is that down here, the local processors are both of those things - pre-stun of course, but Halal guys kill the beef and lamb for opening export doors - you can imagine the ruckus amongst the good conservative Christian farming majority, when that was introdced!

..
firstly they all withdrew stock and shareholding of PPCS (now Silver Fern Farms, where I work) and soon after Alliance followed suit. So they had to lump it!
But I think I will expand my range a little, word of mouth is out, and there is another local guy who does the same so I don't want to steal Rangi's business too much.

Most people are actually surprisingly interested in the story, and watching the process of butchery, I show them all the lymphatic system and what I check for diseases etc etc so I feel they get quite good value while they watch - mostly this process is "closed door" and even few farmers actually know in detail what goes on/gets trimmed off/downgrades a carcass.

Where can the rest of us( who live far from you) learn some of this stuff? I direct market all my beef, lamb and veal but I am sadly lacking in actual meat knowledge, I know a few things but not the details. As a result I don’t properly instruct the butchers on how to cut ( I just do the basic cuts) and don’t always give clients satisfactory answers. My Mum grew up in France before the war and there every housewife knew all her cuts of meat, from nose to tail, and how to prepare them. I missed out on that lesson

 

[Henarar]

its not till you have your own freezer animals done and you get everything back to eat that you realise the best bits of meat are not always the most expensive ones

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

its not till you have your own freezer animals done and you get everything back to eat that you realise the best bits of meat are not always the most expensive ones

Quite true. It's all about how you cook them.